Connecting Dirt from Seaman’s Gulch to Bogus Basin Road

So, unbeknownst to me, there is a whole network of trails in the lower foothills, somewhat paralleling Hill and Pierce Park Rd. So, I set out the other day to try and connect as much dirt from Seaman’s Gulch to Bogus Basin Rd. It turns out, you can stay on dirt almost the entire way there.

DISCLAIMER: Although I never encountered any property markers or no trespassing signs, there is one section of trail that leads you to a barbed wire fence on Cartwright/Pierce Park Rd (you end up behind it). There were a lot of foot prints and bike tracks, so I know people use these trails, but I don’t know if it’s because the landowner turns a blind eye, doesn’t care, or didn’t see me. You be the judge.

So, I started out at home, and road to Seaman’s Gulch and began that trail in a CCW direction:

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You will come to an intersection between Seaman’s Gulch and Wild Phlox…and an unmarked trail that appears to go straight. This is the trail you want. Heading straight will drive you along the ridge with some ups and downs, and a few “Y”s in the trail, but everything I encountered joined back up in short order, so it didn’t matter if you took the left or right trail, you’d still end up at the same place. That is, until you get to a Y that will start taking you sharply downhill towards town (going downhill here is the best bet if you’re nervous about the private property thing, because it’s a widely used set of trails (mostly hikers) that dumps you out at Pierce Park Rd). That’s where you want to bear to the left:

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This is where you are almost certainly entering private property. You’ll be on double track (old access roads), and as long as you keep following the obviously most used sections, you’ll stay on track (it’s easy). After a grinder of a hill, you’ll come to another Y. Taking the left Y looks like it will take you back to Seaman’s Gulch Rd…you want to take the right trail and head downhill (towards Boise) (as shown above).

Following this dirt road you’ll wander up and down some hills, ride by a lonesome tree on a ridge overlooking Pierce Park Rd, and then downhill to a split where you can follow a singletrack trail to the right, or the “road” straight. Either way you go, you’ll end up at Cartwright Rd behind a barbed wire fence. I was a little surprised to find this fence, since I hadn’t crossed any barrier prior to that, but it’s there, and it’s a little disconcerting. The fence has obviously been crossed by many people because there are obvious spots of passage, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be snaking your way underneath the fence. (As mentioned above, heading downhill to Pierce Park earlier will keep you from feeling like a villain)

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Take a left onto Pierce Park Rd towards Polecat Trail. Take a right into the dirt parking lot and start in on Polecat. Take the first right turn you come to in order to start Polcat in a CCW direction. Stay on Polecat the hole time until you come to a sharp right (unmarked) after the intersection with Quick Draw Trail. Take this right turn.

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You’ll follow this trail along the ridge. You’ll know you’re on the right trail if you find yourself carrying your bike up two steep staircases that help you over a couple fences. After not very long, you’ll see a fenced in building on the ridge. Just before this building is an obvious trail that turns steeply downhill. Head down here:

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This will dump you out on 36th St just North of Hill Rd. This trail gets super sandy, so if you plan on doing this run in the opposite direction, plan on a grinder of a climb.

Once on 36th St, take a right towards Hill Rd. Now, I’m not sure of the best way to connect this section with the next. And, I don’t know the name of the trails in the next section. I’ve come to call them the 32nd St Trails, because that’s where I accessed them the first time. So, you can see in my GPS mapping of my ride, that I did a little probing to try and find a connector. I ended up riding out to the school, and connecting to the trails near the tennis courts:

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The green in the above screenshot is where my tires were on pavement.

Now you’re on the “32nd St Trails.” If you’ve never been out here, spend some time exploring. You really can’t go wrong as long as you’re willing to back track uphill occasionally. But, in general, if you’re aiming for Bogus Basin Rd, just keep a general heading in the uphill, Easterly direction. If you head downhill to the right, you’ll end up on Hill Rd. I also imagine that if you take some of the northern spurs that look like they’re heading straight into the neighborhood, you’ll end up in the neighborhood….shocker. Just keep your front wheel pointed in the general direction towards BB Rd, and you’ll get there:

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Where you’ll end up, is a paved parking lot just behind Bogus Basin Rd. If I remember right, it’s the Harrison Nature Reserve, or something similar. There are a few pretty fun trails out here, so I’d recommend running through them on a free day.

That’s it. You’re there. If you’re trying to get to Camels Back, take a left on Bogus Basin Rd, then a Right on Parkhill Dr, followed by a right on 15th. If you stay on the left side of the road, you’ll see a trail labeled 15th Street Trail. This will connect you to Camel’s Back (no more pavement!).

Here’s an overview shot of this whole section (the green portions are pavement):

Glad to see you posting again. The left at the top of the big grind up the “Pierce Park Connector” trail toward the power lines takes you to Hidden Springs to what is very much a legitimate trail head. The bail out you mention to the right also has you exiting across downed fence.There’s actually two such bailouts and the other has a no trespassing sign you come up on the back of. I rode this are about 4 years ago and jumped three fences, all of which had signs indicating I was already trespassing. Also, if you take it backwards, just as you are entering the Seaman’s Gulch trail area, you pass a no trespassing sign indicating all of those R2R trails are on private land. I believe when R2R or whoever converts private land to public, they leave up all of the old signage to minimize traffic.
As for the ride, it is Cartwright you follow to the Polecat parking area. Pierce Park ends at that T-intersection. If you look to your left (North) as you are heading to the parking lot along Cartwright, you will see a steep driveway and shortly after it, a trail climbing to the ridge (It is the trail heading NE and passing right by a power pole). You can follow it to head north and drop in to Dry Creek. From there you can ride to Bogus Basin rd through the gulch and pop out right at Dry Creek. I have only explored the area on foot and am pretty sure you will need to jump at least one more fence. Here is a link to the segment from someone’s ride. http://app.strava.com/activities/44870448#z1548|2206